Author: Dean DeChiaro
Earl Anthony Wayne, former U.S. ambassador to Argentina and diplomat who has served the United States government for 30 years, spoke about the status of the war in Afghanistan last Tuesday.
Wayne, who has served as part of the diplomatic wing of the U.S. effort in Kabul since June, briefed Oxy students and faculty on the recent history of the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda. Moreover, he stressed the mission’s importance to the international community and the Obama administration’s recent adoption of a new strategy.
“The mission in Afghanistan is our number-one foreign policy priority right now,” Wayne said.
Wayne outlined what he called “the three pillars” of the administration’s new strategy, which have transformed many times since the 2001 invasion and deposition of the Taliban regime. According to Wayne, the three-pillar strategy includes security, governance and development – three areas in which the United States can utilize its military, diplomatic strength and civil servant initiatives to rebuild the war-torn country.
The administration’s recent decision to transfer power to the Afghan government and begin to withdraw American forces by 2011 is incumbent on the new strategy’s success, Wayne said.
Although American forces can provide more security and governance than the Afghan military and police forces at the present, the goal is that, in time, the Afghan population would be self-governed and self-protected, Wayne said.
“Our role should be to help [the Afghans] along their way. We cannot do it for them,” he said.
Some students who attended the talk said that the three pillar approach to the lecture made the presentation comprehensive and informative.
“I thought that Wayne provided a fairly succinct overview of both the recent history and current policy being undertaken by the Obama administration,” said Dwight Hobbs (junior), who attended the course as a requirement for his politics class Obama and the Issues.
Fatema Syed, an international student from Kabul currently attending Oxy, agreed with Hobbs, and also praised the administration’s shift to the three-pillar strategy.
“They changed the strategy because now they realize that a military solution is not the only solution, just one possible one [in addition to governance and development],” she said. “It’s important that they’ve realized that.”
The new three-pillar strategy was developed during the period between Obama’s 2008 election victory and his inauguration. Since then, the president has replaced the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and bolstered the diplomatic mission by increasing the number of civil servants on the ground. Perhaps most importantly, the administration has begun to put more pressure on the Afghan government and its president Hamid Karzai to disrupt corruption and drug trafficking in the country, Wayne said.
According to the ambassador, overcoming drug trafficking and corruption are paramount in achieving peace in the country. Afghanistan is currently the largest producer of opium in the world, and it is widely believed that much of the corruption within the Karzai government is tied to the drug trade, according to the New York Times.
In addition, the president’s brother Walid Karzai has been accused of being one of the biggest kingpins in the country, and 17 members of the newly elected parliament have also been tied to the drug trade, according to Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit, a Kabul think tank.
Syed believes government corruption to be the most pressing issue in Afghanistan, greater than the military effort or drug trafficking problem. “We need to tackle the corruption from the top. This is the main problem we are facing – this double standard between top government officers and lower officials,” she said.
Wayne said it was important to pressure President Karzai into curbing the corruption in his government, but equally important to show farmers all over Afghanistan that they could grow licit and more profitable crops than opium and heroin-producing poppies.
“We and our Afghan partners have our eyes on what is possible and attainable. Instead of poppies, we have to convince them that they are doing more good by growing pomegranates or grapes,” he said.
Hobbs, an urban and environmental policy minor, was interested to hear the government position on agro-economics in the country.
“Admittedly these agricultural policies are an extension of drug enforcement that have become more important as poppy production has risen again. Nevertheless, the long term effects of a productive agricultural sector could really help Afghanistan jump into the international market and open it up to more prominent foreign investment,” Hobbs said.
Wayne also underscored the strategic importance of continuing to support Afghanistan’s eastern neighbor, Pakistan, in its own struggle against the Taliban and other extremist groups. Pakistan’s lawless and self-governed Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Northwest Frontier Provinces are widely believed to be the hiding place of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Additionally, the regions serve as a breeding and training ground for Taliban fighters who routinely cross over into Afghanistan to disrupt international development efforts.
Wayne said that the Obama administration has supported Pakistan economically in order to influence its investment in the Afghan war.
“The two countries are so interlinked, they’re like two sides of the same coin,” Wayne said. He also mentioned that most experts and government officials have even coined a term for the entire region – AfPak.
Toward the end of the lecture, Wayne addressed the situation facing girls and women in Afghanistan, an issue he said does not always get the attention it deserves. He stressed the need for women’s education and empowerment in the country as imperative to its progress and transition to democracy.
“If we don’t draw on the talents of the women and girls in Afghanistan, we will not succeed,” he said.
Syed asked Wayne if there were concrete programs in place that educate women about their rights and provide care for those in need. She said she thought he circumvented the question somewhat, but understandably so.
“I think that it’s not in his hands. There are lots of restrictions on what efforts are given money,” she said. “But they should see the capacities of a woman’s ability to contribute and run a business [for example]. If a woman wants to open a factory, she cannot do it with $500.”
Politics Professor Caroline Heldman, who is also the director of the New Orleans Women’s Shelter, praised the ambassador for highlighting some positive gains for women in the country, but expressed reservations about a woman’s overall situation in Afghanistan.
“It’s worth noting that the government we now support is scarcely better than the Taliban when it comes to violence against women and women’s rights,” she said, noting that cases of acid burning, sexual assault and arson at girls’ schools in Afghanistan have risen recently.
At the conclusion of his lecture, Wayne stressed that although the war is eight months from its 10- year anniversary, peace is still attainable. However, Wayne said he understands that challenges still lie ahead.
“You don’t realize how long it takes to rebuild a nation that has been so damaged,” he said.
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